19.4.17
Leaving Sydney late the night before we pulled into Seal Rocks in darkness. After briefly looking for a spot to set up camp we called it a night and woke up to first light in a new spot of coast. Sugarloaf light house is a quick 5 minute walk through the bush and offers views back towards Seal Rocks, South to Lighthouse beach and North up to Blueys/Boomerang Beach and Forster. Waiting for the sun to rise it was a clear morning and we had it all to ourselves.
To the light house.
First light // Sugarloaf Point light house.
Looking South // Lighthouse Beach
Sunrise // 6:00am
Looking North // Sugarloaf from the air.
After checking out the Light House, we grabbed a coffee from ‘Single Fin’ a local bloke and his wife who run a coffee shop out of their van. And it was some bloody good coffee. We sat on the hill and took in the morning’s rays.
Seal Rock’s has some of the clearest waters I’ve seen so I was keen to get back in the water and do some shooting.
The water was as calm as it gets and there were a few little shoreys breaking along the beach, ideal conditions for some underwater work. These are toroidal rings, they form inside a barreling wave when the conditions are right and I am always so amazed to see photos of them, I have an obsession with how a wave looks underwater as it breaks. (Underwater Vortex // available in ‘Ocean’ collection)
One very crisp, refreshing Autumn morning.
I was busy chasing the fish around the point and this local showed up to see what I was up to. I couldn't be more stoked with my encounter with the sea turtle, definitely one of my bucket list animals to photograph underwater.
After a fair while swimming around with this guy, I hadn't realised how far he had led me out to sea. It was a long swim back in to the beach but it was worth it.
After the swim it was back to the local shop for a pie for breakkie then exploring more of this magical place.
Seal Rocks from the hill.
The reef all to herself.
Seal Rocks main beach.
The point from above.
We drove South that arvo to Hawks Nest. Looking for a place to stay the night and refusing to pay for a camp site, we followed a sandy path into the dunes at sunset and found a little slice of beach all to ourselves for the night.
Home for the night // camping under the milky way.
20.4.17
This is what we woke up to…
We were exploring a few of the bigger dunes and had noticed dingo tracks in the sand. Little did we know we were being followed by this dingo. It followed us all the way back to the car. Little survival tip, fly a drone at a dingo to scare it off..
Mt. Yacaaba lies at the end of the Hawks Nest peninsula. The steep walk to the top takes around 1.5 hours but the views up there are something else.
Mt. Yacaaba // Hawks Nest.
View South to Fingal Bay.
View back to Hawks Nest / Tea Gardens.
21.4.17
The next morning we explored more of Fingal Bay, the peninsula reaches out to Fingal Island which is only accessible at low tide.
Fingal Bay peninsula.
The intricate patterns and emerald colours the rising tide creates over the sand bar.
Finally we headed for Stockton Beach. We had done a bit of research but no photos can prepare you for what you see. We drove in the North entrance and spent the rest of the day driving the whole 20km length of beach to the South end. On the way we explored the biggest dunes we could find.
Beach driving // Stockton
Exploring the dunes.
View from the top.
The mind blowing scale of the Stockton sand dunes. I had no idea we had such massive dunes so close to Sydney prior to this adventure.